The Heritage Foundation is honored to announce that the renowned classicist, historian, author, and conservative political commentator Victor Davis Hanson will deliver the 2025 Russell Kirk Lecture. His speech is titled, “Why Borders Matter—Ancient and Modern.”

The namesake of the lecture, famed scholar Russell Kirk (1918–1994), established the philosophical foundations of the modern conservative movement with his landmark books The Conservative Mind (1953) and The Roots of American Order (1974). He was instrumental in the founding of National Review and Modern Age and was a distinguished fellow of The Heritage Foundation.

Kirk’s political philosophy, summarized in his “six cannons of conservatism,” emphasized tradition and convention, transcendence and piety, political prudence, and ordered liberty. His application of those canons to contemporary issues, through essays, lectures, and newspaper columns, was often provocative and controversial, but always noteworthy. Today, his works and legacy are being preserved and advanced by The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal.

The Russell Kirk Lecture Series recognizes eminent thinkers in the tradition of “the father of American conservatism.” Previous lecturers are Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Bishop Robert Barron, Robert George, Roger Scruton, Shelby Steele, George Nash, Robert Reilly, David Goldman, Roger Kimball, and Gary Saul Morson.

Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University; his focus is classics and military history. He has taught at Stanford, Hillsdale College, U.S. Naval Academy, and Pepperdine University.

Hanson is the author of hundreds of articles, book reviews, and newspaper editorials on Greek, agrarian, and military history as well as essays on contemporary culture. He has written or edited twenty-four books and is a syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services and a weekly columnist for the National Review Online.

In addition to creating this extensive body of written work, Hanson is the host of "The Victor Davis Hanson Show."

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